Covering the blossoming startup industry in Portland, Oregon, and the Silicon Forest

July 15th, 2014

An open source Bitcoin ATM? Of course it would happen in Portland

Portland is known for rethinking banks. From startups like Simple to bigger banks and credit unions that are trying to do things differently. And of course we’re into open source. We’re the de facto hub of open source. Duh. But we’re also quite enamored of the cryptocurrency stuff. So it makes sense that we’d also be the home of rethinking banking and crytocurrency with an open source flare.

It used to be hard to sell Bitcoins, a problem that’s been holding back Bitcoin adoption for years. We were tired of depending on centralized banks and exchanges for buying Bitcoins. So we wanted to come up with a solution that made it easy for everyone to become a Bitcoin exchange. The result: Skyhook. The fun, affordable Bitcoin ATM that’s priced for everyone.

Built by a group of Portland folks, Skyhook promises to revolutionize both the way people transact with Bitcoin and the way we interact with it. And as such, it’s designed to accept a bunch of different traditional currencies, be easy to use, and be open to everyone.

If you’re interested in getting your own, they run right about $1000 per unit. And come with everything you need to get it up and going. If you’re in the Portland metro area, they’ll deliver it for free.

Our goal with Skyhook has been to make it possible for everyone to become a Bitcoin exchange, so that the buying of Bitcoin is easy, accessible, and not restricted to a single central source. We’re happy that people are using Skyhook ATMs to make it easy for everyone to buy Bitcoins, and we’re proud of our role in improving the Bitcoin ecosystem by reducing our dependence on centralized exchanges.